Drawing to Painting Cupcakes Without Reference

Hi everyone, my name is Nia, and I will be your teacher for today’s class. Since I have a few requests by you guys for a class on cupcakes. I have finally created a class on the subject.

When it comes to drawing cupcakes, I understand that the most confusing part will be the frosting, so I have dedicated a couple of lessons which covers different styles of piping using both the round tip (which is recommended for beginners because its quite simple to draw), and also star piping tips (preferably for more intermediate students as it has more detail).

So depending on your level of drawing skills, you have the choice to use the elements which you’re comfortable with, and apply it to your final artwork.

Though this class is focused on the doodling and drawing aspect of the subject, I will also include a lesson where I will be loosely painting my final artwork incase you would also like to create a painting by the end of this lesson, and I will leave this option for you to decide on.

I have also prepared exercise sheets which you can download and print out, to draw on with a little bit of guide lines, as well as to create a collection of garnishes you might want to include in your final painting.

As for the final project, you can either create your own composition which can either be an ink doodle or a coloured ink doodle. However depending on your level you might also want to recreate the same final artwork, so I will also provide you with both my pencil outline as well as my inked outline, so you have the freedom to choose the level you want to work with.

I know that this isn’t my normal art style which I usually post here, but this style was a way for me to learn watercolours, as it eliminates more of the painting aspect, which means I did not have to worry too much about completely controlling the medium when I first started to paint.

But don’t worry, because I’m also planning on creating a loaded cupcake painting for my next class where it will be formatted as my usual paint with me class if you’re interested.

Like any of my other classes, I might skip certain parts of the drawing where my hands are not actively in the frame, which means that I might draw or paint a bit quicker to get through and include as much information as possible. So I always suggest for students to watch through each lesson before drawing or painting along, and then when you do decide to recreate the drawing or painting, for you to pause in between, whenever you need to finish off a certain step, so you can work side by side with me in each lesson.

Here is a list of the class outline, just so you know what to expect of this class:

INTRO: Class introduction and art style

SUPPLIES: List of art supplies

CAKE AND LINER: Drawing the cake and liner with ink liner

FROSTING WITH ROUND TIP: Drawing the cake frosting with round tip with different options of piping

FROSTING WITH STAR TIP: Drawing the cake frosting with star tip with different options of piping

TOPPINGS: SPRINKLES: Drawing toppings: sprinkle option

TOPPINGS: SAUCE SWIRLS: Drawing toppings: sauces and jam swirls

SAUCE SWIRL APPLICATION: Applying the sauce swirls with the cake and frosting

TOPPINGS: FRUITS: Drawing a few types of fruits for cupcake garnish

TOPPINGS: SWEET SNACKS: Drawing a few types of sweet snacks for cupcake garnish

GARNISH APPLICATION: Applying different garnishes to the cake and frosting and creating different flavours

TEXTURE APPLICATION (EXTRA): Example of texture detail application on a cupcake doodle

THUMBNAIL COMPOSITION: Brainstorming final art composition with quick thumbnail drawings

SKETCHING AND MAPPING OUT COMPOSITION: Sketching basic shapes with pencil to map out main elements

INKING: Adding detail to each element and outlining the whole artwork

PAINTING AND COLOURING IN: Painting the final artwork with watercolours